State House Passes Insurance Safety Net

December 04, 1986|By Tim Franklin, Chicago Tribune.

SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois House overwhelmingly passed and sent to the governor Wednesday a sweeping new health insurance program intended to help people who are suffering from long-term medical ailments but cannot get insurance.

The House approved the plan 106-2, despite charges from critics who said it could cost the state tens of millions of dollars and send out-of-state people without insurance flocking to Illinois. The Senate cleared the bill last month.

A spokesman for Gov. James Thompson said it is the governor`s

``intention`` to sign the bill.

The Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan would create a state-backed health insurance pool tailored to provide affordable insurance for the estimated 1.2 million state residents suffering from disabilities or disabling diseases.

Thousands of the disabled and seriously ill are denied insurance or deemed high risks by insurance companies because of long-term medical afflictions such as diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, sickle-cell anemia and cancer, proponents of the program say.

Many cannot afford exorbitant health insurance premiums and are driven into bankruptcy because of mounting medical bills, they say.

State Rep. Alan Greiman (D., Skokie), the bill`s sponsor, hailed the plan as a ``very significant, milestone piece of legislation.``

``Passage of the Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan is a matter of simple fairness,`` said Atty. Gen. Neil Hartigan, who shepherded the measure through the legislature during its abbreviated fall session.

The plan would establish an insurance pool that would be administered by an 11-member board composed of representatives of the insurance industry, the state insurance department, the attorney general`s office, the state Health Care Council and the public.

Those who enter the program would have to pay premiums 35 percent higher than those offered by regular private or group medical policies, but their total liability would not exceed $1,500 for individuals and $3,000 for families.

Premiums paid into the pool are intended to cover most of the costs of the program, but the state would be responsible for cover cost overruns, Greiman said.

If Thompson signs the bill, the insurance would be available in January, 1988.

Greiman estimated that about 22,000 people would participate in the program by 1992, and that it could cost the state about $33 million in inflation-adjusted dollars in fiscal 1992.

But opponents said the expense of insurance program may balloon well beyond $33 million and that the state should have placed a ceiling on its costs under the plan.

``You better bite the bullet, get your head out of the sand and realize you are going to have to raise taxes to pay for this,`` said State Rep. Margaret Parcells (R., Northfield), who called the measure ``a great idea,``

but a bad bill.

She said the chief beneficiaries of the bill will be middle-income and upper-income people who already can afford to pay more than the $1,500 cap on medical expenses. There are government already in place that cover many of the medical expenses of the poor, she said.

Parcells also called the program a ``Cadillac`` policy that could result in people ``flooding to this state to take advantage of it,`` multiplying its cost. The measure requires that participants be Illinois residents only for 30 days, she said.

Hartigan said 11 states now have similar insurance pools and 19 other legislatures are debating it.

As the legislature sped toward the adjournment of the fall session later this week, the House also overrode Thompson`s veto of a proposal that requires university professors to be proficient in speaking English.

The House overrode the veto 86-25, etching the measure into law. The Senate voted to overturn the governor`s veto last month.